Google responds to EU antitrust probe

Google has responded to European Commission officials regarding concerns over its business operations with a few suggestions of its own.

As reported by Bloomberg, Google's Eric Schmidt penned a letter to Joaquín Almunia, vice president of the European Commission responsible for Competition Policy, that touches on areas of concern brought up by Almunia in May. Details of the proposal were not disclosed.

"We have made a proposal to address the four areas the European Commission described as potential concerns," a Google spokeswoman confirmed in an email. "We continue to work cooperatively with the Commission."

Almunia's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Almunia gave Google several weeks to come up with a solution in order to avoid formal EU proceedings.

The case dates back to November 2010, when the commission announced that it opened an antitrust investigation into Google over allegations that the company had abused its dominant position in online search.

Since then, the EU has "conducted a large-scale market investigation," Almunia said in May. Google has said repeatedly that it's willing to discuss the issues at hand in order to avoid "adversarial proceedings," he said. "This is why I am today giving Google an opportunity to offer remedies to address the concerns we have already identified."

At the time, Google said "we disagree with the conclusions but we're happy to discuss any concerns they might have."